Adam

 In the hurricane, in the eye of the storm - a single stroke against the horizon.

All is still. Adam stands in the wind. His eyes. What have they seen? Can they start again? Adam imagines poverty. There are a few truths Adam toys with a few truths. 

Truth: Adam lost everything.

Truth: Adam lost Ada.

*

Ryan pulls me on the bed. 

"Awfully quiet since that silly trip along Keyes huh?"

I don't tell him I met one of the most important people in my life.

I laugh and brush it off. 

"What did you see?"

"Let's not"

It's painful to be in bed with a man who can't keep up. Who's as naked as New England's gorgeous siren. Who's as hollow.

Or is he?

Yup. A boy. A boy.

*

A boy of about 11 or 12 shuffles on board. Like a tumbleweed he appears from a corner and slowly whistle-walks close to the bundle of dark clothes that make up Adam's frame.

"Sir, I reckon a storm begins"

A single drop is really all it takes.

*

The waves beat at the ship. Lip lap lip lap lip lap. The rainbow extends beyond the blue. There is no one left on the planet. The cosmos is unpopulated.

The last time he saw her, she was alive and warm. Her forehead – a piece of marble propped against the granite on which her brains would splatter.

 -

The evening began the way nights with Ada begin. Full, filled, over spilling.

She had come home in a white fizziness. Dressed all in champagne. Her dress, off-white. Returning sleepy with crystal sparkle in her luminous eyes. She was such beauty.

She had eaten raspberry jam. Glittery teaspoon in glass. Tinkkk tink tink tink. The music silver makes against glazed glass.

She had a piece of seed on her bottom lip. He took it off and ate it. He would have swallowed her whole, he would have hidden her.

“Augusta?”
“Yes, she was awfully fading. That horror of a man sucked her dry”
Adam imagines a large lion satisfied on a pristine lawn gnawing on the remains of Augusta’s fall wardrobe. Licking in between the sapphire necklace – the tiny pieces of neck left in tatters.

A piece of Augusta neck.

“Why do you still wait on her?”
“Because it is awful when you are rich and you become poor. You've tasted from the wealth. The loneliest loneliness sits and waits because it catches you unprepared”

"Catches you unprepared? Like how? Like this?" 

Ada giggles and wants to run away. She cannot move. Immobile, she lets him wash over her.

The whitest flesh, bruised. Vase, knocked over. A smiling porcelain Venus caught by the fluffy carpet. Grinning into the carpet. Grinning past the persian designs. Grinning.

In the wet softness of Adam's mouth, Ada imagines the first time she almost died. Misha was running too fast downhill and there was no end to the movement. The crazed movement that would go on forever. Shivers started forming when rocks started appearing on the terrain. Misha was not trained on rough surfaces. Neither was Ada. 

Like a cub, she can feel blood a million miles away. 

In the wet softness of Adam's mouth, Ada imagines things could have been different. But could they?

In the dry softness of Ada's room, Max stands pathetically and watches. Watches pathetically.

At his feet, a grinning Venus grins crushed by dumb feet. Max's dumb feet.

Not one betrayal. Two.

(Three but Ava is made of Ada and Ada is made of Ava so this part can be disputed later) 

*

When Ada decided to paint the wall with her brains she took the task childishly. 

*

It is remarkable how little is said when everything is showed.

How words seem to lose their importance. How little they've mattered all along. 

"How does it end?"

"Oh just shut the fuck up"

"That's harsh"

I grab my things. I can't. How can I?